July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp.’s 1.06 billion-euro
($1.3 billion) fine for using rebates to block rivals is based
on an “utterly hopeless” and untenable case by European Union
regulators, company lawyers told an EU appeals court.

The 2009 decision by the EU’s antitrust regulator was based
on claims that are “utter nonsense,” an Intel lawyer told the
EU General Court in Luxembourg. Claims that Intel made payments
to Lenovo Group Ltd. to cut Advanced Micro Devices Inc. out of
the market are baseless and should be overturned. Intel and AMD
have engaged in patent and antitrust battles with each other
since the early 1990s.

“This case is utterly hopeless and should never have been
brought,” Nicholas Green, a lawyer for Intel, told the EU’s
second-highest court on the third day of hearings.

The EU probe concluded Intel impeded competition by giving
computer makers rebates from 2002 until 2005 on the condition
that they buy at least 95 percent of their chips for personal
computers from the Santa Clara, California-based company. Intel
imposed “restrictive conditions” for the remaining 5 percent,
supplied by AMD, which struggled to overcome Intel’s hold on the
PC processor market, the EU said. The infringement continued
until at least December 2007, the EU said.

Accusations that Intel paid Lenovo, the world’s second-largest computer maker, in 2006 to delay AMD-based notebooks and
gave the manufacturer rebates in 2007 under an agreement not to
buy from AMD were wrong and the commission ignored evidence that
showed otherwise, Green told the court yesterday.

The 2006 payments “were to win business, not to cancel a
launch” of AMD-based notebooks, Green said. Lenovo also told
the investigators the 2007 deal wasn’t exclusive and “there was
serious concern that AMD was not a reliable supplier and
business partner,” Green said.

The EU began investigating after AMD complained in 2000.
Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion in 2009 to end all civil
litigation. Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is no longer
involved in the case and won’t intervene at this week’s hearing.

The antitrust fine was the EU’s biggest, more than double
the 497 million-euro penalty against Microsoft Corp. in 2004. It
represented about 4 percent of Intel’s $37.6 billion in sales in
2008, below the maximum penalty of 10 percent of annual sales.

Any decision by the EU General Court can be appealed to the
EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

The case is T-286/09 Intel Corp. v. Commission.

HTC Phones Don’t Infringe Apple’s Patents, British Judge Says

HTC Corp., Asia’s second-largest smartphone maker, won a
London court ruling against Apple Inc. over patents for
touchscreen technology used for its mobile devices, including
Apple’s slide-to-unlock feature.

HTC’s devices don’t infringe four Apple patents for the
technology, and three of those patents are invalid, Judge
Christopher Floyd said July 4.

The U.K. court judgment “marks a considerable defeat for
Apple in the smartphone patent wars,” said Peter Bell, an
attorney at Stevens & Bolton LLP, who isn’t involved in the
case. “Two of Apple’s prize patents have been knocked out in
the U.K.”

Apple is fighting patent lawsuits on four continents
against rivals including HTC and South Korea-based Samsung
Electronics Co. as it competes for dominance of the $219 billion
global smartphone market. The firms have accused each other of
copying designs and technology used in mobile devices.

“Competition is healthy, but competitors should create
their own original technology, not steal ours,” Cupertino,
California-based Apple said in an e-mailed statement, without
commenting specifically on yesterday’s decision.

While HTC was pleased with the ruling, “we remain
disappointed that Apple continues to favor competition in the
courtroom over competition in the marketplace,” Andrea Sommer,
a spokeswoman for the Taoyuan City, Taiwan-based company, said.

In addition to the slide-to-unlock feature, the ruling
covered Apple’s patents on tools used to scroll through
photographs and change alphabets, and software allowing users to
touch the screen in two spots simultaneously.

While the court ruled that Apple’s photo-management patent
is valid, Floyd found that HTC didn’t infringe it.

The same four patents are being contested by Apple and HTC
in German lawsuits, scheduled to be heard later this year.

In the U.S., Apple tried to stop HTC from importing its
newest phones, saying they violate a patent order issued in
December. The U.S. International Trade Commission decided this
week that HTC could continue to import the devices while it
investigated claims a system for detecting telephone numbers in
e-mails was copied.

Before his death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs waged war on
Google Inc.’s Android operating system, used by HTC, Samsung and
other rivals in their phones. He told his authorized biographer
he would spend every penny in the company’s coffers “to destroy
Android” because it was a stolen product.

Apple Gets Patent on Wearable Display Technology

The next iPad may reside in a user’s eyeglasses, according
to a new patent issued to Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.

Patent 8,212,859, issued July 3, covers a “head-mounted
display apparatus” onto which images are projected in front of
the eyes of the wearer. The apparatus could be a pair of
eyeglasses, a visor or a helmet, according to the patent.

The technology covered by the patent improves the user’s
experience by coordinating what the eye sees peripherally with
the image that is being viewed. Existing projected technology
occludes peripheral vision, giving the user the sense of viewing
the image down a tunnel and often making the user susceptible to
motion sickness, Apple said in the patent.

Apple applied for the patent in October 2006 with
assistance from Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

For more patent news, click here.

Trademark

Honeywell Files Trademark-Infringement Suit in Nigerian Court

Honeywell International Inc., the Morris Township, New
Jersey-based technology and manufacturing company, filed a
trademark-infringement lawsuit in Nigeria’s federal high court
against a similarly named Nigerian company, that country’s PM
News reported.

The suit is against Nigeria’s Honeywell Group, which
registered its name in that country and claims the U.S. company
is infringing, PM News reported.

Honeywell International says the Nigerian company’s actions
are damaging, and seeks 20 billion naira ($122 million) in
compensation, according to PM News.

Consumers Told to Look for ‘Pink Lady’ Stickers on Imports

Many “Pink Lady” apples imported to the U.S. and now
appearing in supermarkets may not have been grown under
standards required to legitimately display the trademark, Pink
Lady America LLC said in a statement.

The apple, developed in Australia in the 1970s, ripens in
the southern hemisphere in May and is sold in U.S. markets when
local varieties aren’t in season. It is now also grown in the
U.S. and bears fruit in the northern-hemisphere apple season.

Pink Lady America said consumers should ensure that “Pink
Lady” apples sold in the U.S. bear the name on the sticker.
Those without the stickers might not be packed according to
required quality standards, Pink Lady America said.

Domestic apple growers can get a free license to use the
trademark if they sign an agreement that outlines the brand
requirements, according to Pink Lady America.

For more trademark news, click here.

Copyright

Righthaven Manager Seeks Ouster of Receiver-Hired Counsel

Righthaven LLP, the entity set up to enforce the copyrights
for Las Vegas-based Stephens Media Group’s publications, is back
in federal court in Nevada.

A receiver was appointed to handle the company’s assets
after the failure of a copyright-infringement lawsuit Righthaven
filed against Wayne Hoehn, who allegedly posted content from
Stephens’s publications on his websites. Hoehn was awarded
attorney fees, and in the wake of Righthaven’s non-payment, was
given the firm’s assets. The Hoehn suit was one of more than 250
similar cases filed by Righthaven.

On June 25, the receiver told Righthaven Chief Executive
Officer Steven Gibson that she was firing him. In a filing she
made with the court that day, she said Gibson hired outside
counsel for Righthaven without authority to do so, and that she
was considering seeking a recovery of some of Righthaven’s
losses from him, possibly through a malpractice suit.

Gibson responded in a July 2 court filing, saying the
receiver had exceeded her authority and had hired an appellate
counsel for Righthaven whose interests were adverse to the
company’s. He also said he is manager of Net Sortie Systems LLC,
which he says is the manager of Righthaven.

As such, Gibson claims in his filing that he is the
“manager of the manager of Righthaven” and has the right to
hire or fire any counsel representing the company. He asked the
court to rescind his termination, reconsider the receiver’s
appointment, and force the withdrawal of the appellate counsel
the receiver hired.

The case is Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, 11-cv-050, U.S.
District Court, District of Nevada (Las Vegas).

ALA Files Brief in Supreme Court Copyright Case

The American Library Association, together with two other
library groups, filed a friend-of-the court brief in the
copyright case the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear in the
upcoming term.

John Wiley & Sons Inc., based in Hoboken, New Jersey,
accused a bookseller in a lawsuit of infringing its copyrights
by importing foreign editions of the publisher’s books. Supap
Kirtsaeng appealed after a jury awarded Wiley $600,000 for
importing the books from Thailand and selling them for a profit.

In a statement released by the Library Copyright Alliance,
of which the ALA is a member, the library group said an adverse
decision in the case could affect libraries’ rights to circulate
books manufactured abroad.

They argue against an appeals court ruling that said
copyright law’s “first sale doctrine” -- which allows any
purchaser of a copyrighted work to resell it -- applied only to
copies manufactured in the U.S. The libraries asked the court to
extend the first-sale doctrine to all lawfully made copies of a
work, regardless of where they are manufactured.

Other members of the alliance are the Association of
College & Research Libraries and the Association of Research
Libraries.

IP Moves

Baker & McKenzie Expands IP Practice with Hire from Venable Firm

Baker & McKenzie LLP hired Julie A. Petruzzelli for its IP
practice, the international firm said in a statement.

Petruzzelli, who joins from Baltimore’s Venable LLP, is a
litigator who has handled patent, trademark, copyright and
trade-secret disputes. Many of her clients, who come from the
computer, pharmaceutical, biochemical, medical device and
chemical industries, are based in Asia.

She has represented clients in federal courts and before
the U.S. International Trade Commission, a Washington-based body
with the power to exclude infringing products.

Petruzzelli has an undergraduate degree from Brown
University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.